The University of Wisconsin-Madison, home of pioneering ecologists who studied lakes, forests, wetlands and prairies, is playing a key role in the next wave of ecological research: large teams of scientists confronting the dilemma of a changing climate on a shrinking planet. ...
Many have assumed that warmer winters as a result of climate change would increase the growth of trees and shrubs because the growing season would be longer. But shrubs achieve less yearly growth when cold winter temperatures are interrupted by temperatures warm enough to trigger growth. ...
Can plants and animals evolve to keep pace with climate change? A new study shows that for at least one widely-studied plant, the European climate is changing fast enough that strains from Southern Europe already grow better in the north than established local varieties. ...
Researchers found that negative media reports seem to have only a passing effect on public opinion, but that positive stories don't appear to possess much staying power, either. This dynamic suggests that climate scientists should reexamine how to effectively and more regularly engage the public. ...
A new genetic study has revealed that populations of humpback whales in the oceans of the North Pacific, North Atlantic and Southern Hemisphere are much more distinct from each other than previously thought, and should be recognized as separate subspecies. Understanding how connected these populations are has important implications for the recovery of these charismatic animals that were once devastated...
Last winter was a little kinder than usual to America's honeybees, but they are still in decline. However new research suggests that giving them more food could help ...
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation is known to influence global surface temperatures, with El Niño conditions leading to warmer temperatures and La Niña conditions leading to colder temperatures. However, a new study shows that some types of El Niño do not have this effect, a finding that could explain recent decade-scale slowdowns in global warming. ...
Rising temperatures and ash from Northern Hemisphere forest fires combined to cause large-scale surface melting of the Greenland ice sheet in 1889 and 2012, contradicting conventional thinking that the melt events were driven by warming alone, a new study finds. ...
Humans have more than doubled tropical nitrogen inputs, according to new research. Scientists used a new method to demonstrate that biological nitrogen fixation in tropical rain forests may be less than a quarter of previous estimates. Nitrogen is an essential nutrient for plant and animal life. Too much nitrogen, however, leads to dead zones, pollutes air and drinking water, contributes to a number...
After snaking through the Sonoran desert, the Colorado river has reached its natural destination in the Gulf of California, bringing a parched area of Mexico back to life in the process ...
Three years of observations show that the Antarctic ice sheet is now losing 159 billion tons of ice each year -- twice as much as when it was last surveyed. Scientists have now produced the first complete assessment of Antarctic ice sheet elevation change. ...
The amount of water flowing through rivers in snow-affected regions depends significantly on how much of the precipitation falls as snowfall, new research has shown for the first time. This means in a warming climate, if less of the precipitation falls as snow, rivers will discharge less water than they currently do. ...
A new study examining the impact of iron released from continental margin sediments has documented a natural limiting switch that may keep these ocean systems from developing a runaway feedback loop that could lead to unchecked hypoxic areas, or persistent 'dead zones.' The findings are particularly important, scientists say, because as the climate warms oxygen minimum zones are expected to expand...
Greenland's icy reaches are far more vulnerable to warm ocean waters from climate change than had been thought, according to new research by glaciologists. The work shows previously uncharted deep valleys stretching for dozens of miles under the Greenland Ice Sheet. ...
A major report calls for the Democratic Republic of the Congo to revoke the permits that will allow oil drilling in Virunga National Park ...
Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is threatened by oil prospectors. Here are some of the unique wonders within its borders ...
An international study has led to the creation of the world’s first global database of jellyfish records to map jellyfish populations in the oceans. The debate regarding future trends, and subsequent ecological, biogeochemical and societal impacts, of jellyfish and jellyfish blooms in a changing ocean is hampered by a lack of information about jellyfish biomass and distribution from which to compare....
Using modern weather satellites to monitor rainfall has become a robust, widely practiced technique. However, establishing a reliable context for relating space-based rainfall observations to current and historical ground-based rainfall data has been difficult. Now researchers are using space-based rainfall observations and comparing them to current and historical ground-based rainfall data to observe...
New research is the first to tie the stable carbon isotope record of Africa's South Atlantic coast to global records. This record clarifies the age of rocks at Bentiaba, Angola. The work provides a 71.5 million year age for the richest marine reptile fossil bed along the South Atlantic. The new record of time represents nearly 30 million years of Cretaceous fossils and environments in the ancient South...
The timing has been beautifully choreographed by nature. Rising spring temperatures prompt many bee species to begin their search for the flowering plants they depend on for food -- and which they propagate through pollination. But what would happen if this vital, mutually beneficial relationship goes out of synch due to climate change? ...